Day 2 in Georgetown Colorado guanella pass and the Georgetown loop railway 

It was temps in the 40*f s outside the hotel this morning… not used to that 

We had to buy another suitcase so we headed to walmarts along the high way.

The sun shone no clouds and it was soon into the 70*f 

We planned to do the guanella pass from Georgetown to Grant  up to 11669feet

(Georgetown is 8470 feet) well what’s a few more hairpin bends!

Do you know we had a lovely day amongst the aspen trees and flowing streams and a waterfall, lakes and autumn colours 

We drove up to the summit at 11,000+ ft

We also travelled down the other side to the junction with the main road. 24 miles in all. 

Back eventually in Georgetown we

Had a sandwich and a proper cup of tea at a cafe called Lilyannies. There are lots of craft and unique stores in Georgetown 

We went in the sweet store where they make all the sweets and they make ice cream …. So we had to sample😎

We went up to the station and lucky us again we watched the steam train set off and go over the iron bridge and up the valley and then saw the other train on its return. We timed it just right.

What a full last day. 

We’ve been warned to allow for weekend traffic into Denver and to allow time so we are setting off earlier than we anticipated 

But as our family know only too well we always arrive about 4 hours early!

(I’ll load some train pics up later perhaps tomorrow as they need resizing)

Turn in 278 miles to Georgetown from Moab 

We left the hotel at sunrise and enjoyed seeing all the rocks light up in the early sunshine rays, all their colours glowed red

A hot air balloon was ascending .

We passed the cars queuing to go into arches np and joined the highway 70

Turn right in 278 miles!

After 90 mins we stopped at a Starbucks

I’m longing for a Costa!

We have noticed lots of homeless people in populated areas begging for food. We have seen people living in boxes under covers on hillsides all the time we have been in USA

Now we crossed back into Colorado and followed the river Colorado The trees are showing autumnal colours mostly reds and yellows and the reflection in the river water are so pretty.

As the highway climbed higher through the mountains the road became a very scenic route.

Then we reached the aspens. With the sun on them too, they dazzled in golden beauty. We had 10 106miles of road works to negotiate at one stretch but admiring the aspens really kept us interested in our surroundings 

10630 feet  at Vail pass!

We stopped at copper mountain Leadville as the roadworks had  finished. There were pools of turquoise and navy water full of minerals as fishermen were fishing them. It is 62*f

Near to Georgetown we stopped at a rest area to take autumn pics. Well we heard this train and to our luck it was a steam train doing a loop up the mountain side

We raced for our long lenses but I gotst the best pic on my mobile 

Georgetown is Victorian and full of charm. It is set on a lake and has the loop the loop steam train. The autumn colours are stunning and there is a scenic route to drive up the mountain to the next town

We will send photos tomorrow 

Maybe we will see a bear at last?🤞

Day 2 Moab visiting canyonlands

Another hot day with no clouds just blue sky.

Today we find the needles, (fingers crossed).

Sunrise this morning was beautiful but didn’t photograph it sorry. I’ll remember tomorrow.

First stop Wilson’s arch

Excuse the sunglasses mine broke and these are our spare

Next stop the cathedral butte I think it looks more like the yellow submarine

Entering the road to canyonlands we kept stopping to capture the mountains and autumn colours in the valley. 

The valley is privately owned farmland. There was a gate and a small lake. It was padlocked but the barbed wire was down so we very naughtily went in to see the reflections in the lake.

Vince went much further away from me along the lake and he saw an animal in the water. It was a raccoon!

This is one of his photos…

Continued until we reached the visitors centre and found we took the wrong road yesterday 🤪

This time we found the view point to the needles 

There is an 8 miles hike to them but we have that a miss 🤣

We ate our lunch under shade at the visitor centre 

There was one more thing to do to see the wooden shoe arch.

On the return back to Moab the sun was high and it was 89*f there was more of a heat haze. We have really enjoyed the canyonlands. It has huge dimensions and you keep expecting a hoard of Navajo on horses to appear!

So onto our last hotel tomorrow at Georgetown Colorado. 

Moab Utah

On the route to Moab from Bluff we had an easy ride. There were only 3 towns along the route and we saw rock forms and plateaux between deep canyons

Autumn colours on the bushes were so pretty reds oranges and yellows

We saw white and red rocks then yellows grasses and shrubs on barren land.

Nearer Moab we saw many buttes in yellow and red and we passed Wilson’s arch again

We are retracing our journey here as the best next hop towards Colorado Georgetown. Then Denver airport Saturday

We had Italian coffee in a bakery shop in Moab. Whilst we decided what to do before we could check in at our new hotel.

We went to the information centre asked about gravel roads to the needles. He said it was paved all the way so our afternoon was sorted for us!

The rest of the morning we looked round the shops in Moab and bought some presents.

The needles: They are within canyonlands national park. We visited canyonlands a few weeks ago but not this side so it was all new to us

The road was very pretty we saw yellow and purple wildflowers and huge white rock forms. It was similar to Zion np but in our opinion much better. In Zion you are not allowed to drive through and have to take a bus. Here you are close up.

We stopped at newspaper rock and saw Petroglyphs. There was a small bit of graffiti but otherwise they looked very clear.

At the needles visitors centre we picked up maps but although we saw the needles in the distance we missed that road. 

We are returning tomorrow as there is so much to see and we had to check in at our hotel fairly soon.

Some photos I took in this area of canyonlands 

It’s like being on mars?

Also saw some wild turkeys